The judge assigned to preside over the gang rape cases of slain Louisiana State University student Madison Brooks is the mother of a convicted serial rapist, according to media reports.
Judge Gail Ray was slated to oversee the trial for Desmond Carter, 21, one of three men accused of raping Brooks in a vehicle before her death in January 2023. The trial was scheduled for Aug. 17.
Brooks, a 19-year-old LSU student, was fatally struck by a car on a Baton Rouge highway in January 2023 after a group of men allegedly raped her and then dumped her from a vehicle.
The impartiality of Judge Ray came under scrutiny as she had previously represented her son, Nelson Taylor, 46, in his 1997 serial rape conviction. Taylor has recently reappeared in court seeking to have his multiple convictions overturned.
In November 2025, the state moved to have Ray removed from the gang rape trials, citing previous rulings and the judge having seen evidence related to Brooks’ sexual history that was thrown out. The District Attorney’s office filed the recusal request. A document also included text messages from another defendant, Casen Carver, 22, to his father stating the judge’s “son was accused of rape a while back so she knows to help us.”
Carver’s attorney appealed the recusal decision, but the state Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Ray could remain on the cases, finding that the state did not meet its burden for removal.
Judge Ray's son, Nelson Taylor, pleaded guilty in 1997 to three counts of forcible rape and five counts of aggravated burglary related to a series of attacks against multiple girls between the fall of 1995 and spring of 1996, when he was a high school student. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, though a post-conviction plea deal in 2001 led to the dismissal of the burglary charges.
In 2023, the state Supreme Court ruled that the practice of amending plea agreements after a conviction was unconstitutional. Taylor, now 46, was previously on parole but was arrested in 2024 for obscenity. He returned to court on July 22, seeking to have his forcible rape convictions and sentences set aside. His attorneys argue that because the plea deal was later found unconstitutional, Taylor should be allowed to enter a new guilty plea with a sentence no greater than the original.
The motion for Taylor’s hearing was filed in November but was stalled as all judges in the 19th Judicial District Court and the District Attorney’s office recused themselves due to Taylor being Judge Ray’s son.